Rhetoric   

before the first has been forgotten, and not be widely separated from
it; nor, except in the few cases where this is appropriate, is another
connective to be introduced before the one required. Consider the
sentence, 'But as soon as he told me (for Cleon had come begging and
praying), took them along and set out.' In this sentence many
connecting words are inserted in front of the one required to complete
the sense; and if there is a long interval before 'set out', the
result is obscurity. One merit, then, of good style lies in the right
use of connecting words. (2) The second lies in calling things by
their own special names and not by vague general ones. (3) The third
is to avoid ambiguities; unless, indeed, you definitely desire to be
ambiguous, as those do who have nothing to say but are pretending to
mean something. Such people are apt to put that sort of thing into
verse. Empedocles, for instance, by his long circumlocutions imposes
on his hearers; these are affected in the same way as most people are
when they listen to diviners, whose ambiguous utterances are received
with nods of acquiescence-
"Croesus by crossing the Halys will ruin a mighty realm. "
Diviners use these vague generalities about the matter in hand because
their predictions are thus, as a rule, less likely to be falsified. We
are more likely to be right, in the game of 'odd and even', if we
simply guess 'even' or 'odd' than if we guess at the actual number;
and the oracle-monger is more likely to be right if he simply says
that a thing will happen than if he says when it will happen, and
therefore he refuses to add a definite date. All these ambiguities
have the same sort of effect, and are to be avoided unless we have
some such object as that mentioned. (4) A fourth rule is to observe
Protagoras' classification of nouns into male, female, and inanimate;
for these distinctions also must be correctly given. 'Upon her arrival
she said her say and departed (e d elthousa kai dialechtheisa
ocheto).' (5) A fifth rule is to express plurality, fewness, and unity
by the correct wording, e.g. 'Having come, they struck me (oi d
elthontes etupton me).'
It is a general rule that a written composition should be easy to read
and therefore easy to deliver. This cannot be so where there are many
connecting words or clauses, or where punctuation is hard, as in the
writings of Heracleitus. To punctuate Heracleitus is no easy task,
because we often cannot tell whether a particular word belongs to what
precedes or what follows it. Thus, at the outset of his treatise he
says, 'Though this truth is always men understand it not', where it is
not clear with which of the two clauses the word 'always' should be
joined by the punctuation. Further, the following fact leads to
solecism, viz. that the sentence does not work out properly if you
annex to two terms a third which does not suit them both. Thus either
'sound' or 'colour' will fail to work out properly with some verbs:
'perceive' will apply to both, 'see' will not. Obscurity is also
caused if, when you intend to insert a number of details, you do not
first make your meaning clear; for instance, if you say, 'I meant,
after telling him this, that and the other thing, to set out', rather
than something of this kind 'I meant to set out after telling him;
then this, that, and the other thing occurred.'
Part 6
The following suggestions will help to give your language
impressiveness. (1) Describe a thing instead of naming it: do not say
'circle', but 'that surface which extends equally from the middle
every way'. To achieve conciseness, do the opposite-put the name
instead of the description. When mentioning anything ugly or unseemly,
use its name if it is the description that is ugly, and describe it if
it is the name that is ugly. (2) Represent things with the help of
metaphors and epithets, being careful to avoid poetical effects. (3)
Use plural for singular, as in poetry, where one finds
"Unto havens Achaean, "
though only one haven is meant, and
"Here are my letter's many-leaved folds. "